Category: Data Curation, Open Data, and Research Data Management

"Making Sense of Journal Research Data Policies"

Linda Naughton and David Kernohan have published "Making Sense of Journal Research Data Policies" in Insights: The UKSG Journal.

Here's an excerpt:

This article gives an overview of the findings from the first phase of the Jisc Journal Research Data Policy Registry pilot (JRDPR), which is currently under way. . . . The project undertook an analysis of 250 journal research data policies to assess the feasibility of developing a policy registry to assist researchers and support staff to comply with research data publication requirements. The evidence shows that the current research data policy ecosystem is in critical need of standardization and harmonization if such services are to be built and implemented. To this end, the article proposes the next steps for the project with the objective of ultimately moving towards a modern research infrastructure based on machine-readable policies that support a more open scholarly communications environment.

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Sloan Foundation Funds Frictionless Data initiative

The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation has given a $700,000 grant to Open Knowledge International to support its Frictionless Data initiative .

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

The funding will target standards work, tooling, and infrastructure around "data packages" as well as piloting and outreach activities to support researchers and civic technologists in addressing real problems encountered when working with data.

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IMLS and Partners Launch Fourth Digging into Data Challenge

The Institute of Museum and Library Services and 15 national funding agencies have launched the Fourth Digging into Data Challenge.

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

This year's competition is presented under the auspices of the Trans-Atlantic Platform (T-AP), a consortium of sixteen international funders of social sciences and humanities research from Europe, South America, and North America. U.S. funding agencies are IMLS, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the National Science Foundation. With new funders from Europe and, for the first time, South America, research teams will have opportunities for more diverse collaborations and subjects of inquiry. . . .

The Digging into Data funding opportunity is open to international projects that consist of teams from at least three member countries, and must include partners from both sides of the Atlantic. Projects must address a research question in humanities and/or social sciences disciplines by using large-scale, digital data analysis techniques, and show how these techniques can lead to new insights. Research partners will receive funding from their own national funding agencies for projects that can last for up to 36 months.

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Webinar Recording: "VIVO plus SHARE: Closing the Loop on Tracking Scholarly Activity"

DuraSpace has released "VIVO plus SHARE: Closing the Loop on Tracking Scholarly Activity."

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

On February 24, 2016, Rick Johnson (Program Co-Director, Digital Initiatives and Scholarship Head, Data Curation and Digital Library Solutions Hesburgh Libraries, University of Notre Dame; Visiting Program Officer for SHARE at the Association of Research Libraries) and Mike Conlon (VIVO Project Director, DuraSpace; Professor Emeritus, University of Florida) presented, "VIVO plus SHARE: Closing the Loop on Tracking Scholarly Activity."

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Filling the Digital Preservation Gap: A Jisc Research Data Spring Project Phase Two Report—February 2016

Jenny Mitcham et al. have released Filling the Digital Preservation Gap: A Jisc Research Data Spring Project Phase Two Report—February 2016.

Here's an excerpt:

Phase 1 of the project investigated the need for digital preservation as part of a wider infrastructure for research data management and looked specifically at how the open source digital preservation system Archivematica could fulfil this function. . . .

Work in phase 2 had the following aims:

  • Work with Artefactual Systems to develop Archivematica in a number of areas (highlighted in our phase 1 report) in order to make the system more suitable for fitting into our infrastructures for research data management
  • Develop our own detailed implementation plans for Hull and York to establish how Archivematica will be incorporated into our local infrastructures for research data
  • Consider how Archivematica could work as an above campus installation
  • Consider how digital preservation is addressed by the projects in phase 2 of Research Data Spring

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DuraSpace and LYRASIS Boards Approve "Intent to Merge"

The DuraSpace and LYRASIS Boards have approved an "Intent to Merge".

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

The respective boards unanimously approved an "Intent to Merge", which means the organizations, having done a careful initial investigation, will move into a public phase to consider an official plan and pathway for the potential coming together, including a full analysis of member benefits. The decision to eventually come together is not yet final. In this public phase of investigation, each organization seeks feedback from members of their organizations and will investigate carefully the value of all services, projects, membership models and organizational cultures to ensure a smooth transition for members of both organizations should a merger agreement occur.

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"An Update on Peer Review and Research Data"

Fiona Murphy has published "An Update on Peer Review and Research Data" in Learned Publishing.

Here's an excerpt:

As has been outlined here, the question of how to review research data and incorporate this into the publication process remains a knotty one. Various groups have made a certain amount of progress with potential recommendations, and domain-related and technical support functions are also emerging. However, the critical mass of active researchers has so far failed to engage.

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"Data Literacy Training Needs of Biomedical Researchers"

Lisa M. Federer, Ya-Ling Lu, and Douglas J. Joubert, have published "Data Literacy Training Needs of Biomedical Researchers" in the Journal of the Medical Library Association.

Here's an excerpt:

This article reports on an exploratory study that expands on the existing literature by considering the data literacy training needs of career-level researchers and related staff. This study was conducted to inform the development of the data services program at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Library, which serves staff at NIH and other agencies in the Department of Health and Human Services.

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Open Science, Open Data, Open Access

UKeiG has released Open Science, Open Data, Open Access for non-members.

Here's an excerpt:

Open Science is shown to be moving centre-stage, with a rationale of improving efficiency in science; increasing transparency and quality in the research validation process; speeding the transfer of knowledge; increasing knowledge spill-overs to the economy; addressing global challenges more effectively; and promoting citizens' engagement in science and research.

Open Data is shown to have undergone a surge in practical development, mirroring the well established repositories for research outputs. The development and application of model policies and of principles is also discussed.

The current major developments in Open Access are discussed in detail, including the identification and mirroring of success factors in funders' and institutions' policies and mandates for driving Open Access deposits and the growth in Gold Open Access.

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If You Build It, Will They Fund? Making Research Data Management Sustainable

OCLC Research has released If You Build It, Will They Fund? Making Research Data Management Sustainable.

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

Some research libraries have been proactive in taking on the new role of supporting the research data management needs of researchers and the university, whereas others have been assigned this role without having sought it. Either way, additional financial or personnel resources rarely are in place to implement and sustain this activity. This brief document explores the pros and cons of seven possible funding sources. It also describes the current circumstances in seven countries outside the United States.

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"Open Data in Global Environmental Research: The Belmont Forum’s Open Data Survey"

Birgit Schmidt, Birgit Gemeinholzer, and Andrew Treloar have published "Open Data in Global Environmental Research: The Belmont Forum's Open Data Survey" in PLOS ONE.

Here's an excerpt:

This paper presents the findings of the Belmont Forum's survey on Open Data which targeted the global environmental research and data infrastructure community. It highlights users' perceptions of the term "open data", expectations of infrastructure functionalities, and barriers and enablers for the sharing of data. A wide range of good practice examples was pointed out by the respondents which demonstrates a substantial uptake of data sharing through e-infrastructures and a further need for enhancement and consolidation. Among all policy responses, funder policies seem to be the most important motivator. This supports the conclusion that stronger mandates will strengthen the case for data sharing.

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Massive Yahoo News Feed Dataset Released

Yahoo has released a massive News Feed dataset.

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

The Yahoo News Feed dataset is a collection based on a sample of anonymized user interactions on the news feeds of several Yahoo properties, including the Yahoo homepage, Yahoo News, Yahoo Sports, Yahoo Finance, Yahoo Movies, and Yahoo Real Estate. The dataset stands at a massive ~110B lines (1.5TB bzipped) of user-news item interaction data, collected by recording the user-news item interaction of about 20M users from February 2015 to May 2015.

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"Data Citation Services in the High-Energy Physics Community"

Patricia Herterich and Sünje Dallmeier-Tiessen have published "Data Citation Services in the High-Energy Physics Community" in D-Lib Magazine.

Here's an excerpt:

In this article we present a case study of data citation services for the High-Energy Physics (HEP) community using digital library technology. Our example shows how the concept of data citation is implemented for the complete research workflow, covering data production, publishing, citation and tracking of data reuse. We also describe challenges faced and distil lessons learnt for infrastructure providers and scholarly communication stakeholders across disciplines.

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"RDAP Review: Research Data Integration in the Purdue Libraries"

Lisa D. Zilinski, et al. have published "RDAP Review: Research Data Integration in the Purdue Libraries" in the Bulletin of the Association for Information Science and Technology.

Here's an excerpt:

In 2014, the Research Data group @ Purdue University Libraries developed and rolled out a new organizational structure, leading to increased collaborations across campus. This panel talk at the 2015 ASIS&T RDAP Summit gave an overview of the new Purdue model of data services and in-depth looks into how the specialists and liaisons have incorporated data services activities and education into their responsibilities and research. In this article, the panelists discuss their roles and how they integrate in the libraries' overall strategy.

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"Charles W. Bailey, Jr." (Interview with Bailey in Preservation, Digital Technology & Culture)

Michèle V. Cloonan has published "Charles W. Bailey, Jr." in Preservation, Digital Technology & Culture. (The image on the journal’s page for the article that appears instead of an abstract is one of Bailey’s digital pastel drawings.)

Here's an excerpt:

A sea change seems to be occurring in the attitudes of research libraries and some academic libraries toward digital preservation: it's increasingly being seen as mission critical, rather than being simply desirable. This will lead to greater resource allocations to this function, and that will have beneficial secondary effects for other libraries, such as more open source systems and tools being developed (and enhanced) and more interest in the field by commercial vendors.

Someday digital curation and preservation may be completely routine library activities that can be easily performed primarily by support staff, who are following widely accepted and proven methodologies and are using full-featured digital curation systems that seamlessly integrate with related library, institutional, and cooperative systems. In the meantime, there is a lot of innovative and challenging work to do, which is what makes digital curation and preservation such an attractive field.

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"Preparing to Accept Research Data: Creating Guidelines for Librarians"

Laura B. Palumbo et al. have published "Preparing to Accept Research Data: Creating Guidelines for Librarians" in the Journal of eScience Librarianship.

Here's an excerpt:

In order to provide a better defined workflow and mission for research data services, in July 2014, the Rutgers University Librarian organized a Task Force to investigate the evaluation process for technical, legal, and confidential issues involved in research data acceptance, and to establish an administrative and evaluation framework for the deposit of research data. . . . This paper will discuss the issues addressed by the Task Force; acknowledging ownership of data through an institutional data policy, preventing exposure of confidential or sensitive data, establishing a reconfigured data team, requirements for storage capacity and funding, creating a workflow which includes collaboration with research offices, and offering guidance for both researchers and librarians working with research data.

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"Research Data Management: A Case Study"

Gary Brewerton has published "Research Data Management: A Case Study" in Ariadne.

Here's an excerpt:

In April 2014 Loughborough University launched an innovative cloud-based platform [1] to deliver long-term archiving and discovery for its research data. The platform was based upon the Arkivum/100 [2] digital archiving service from Arkivum and the figshare for institutions solution from Figshare [3]. This article discusses the background and implementation of this new platform at the University.

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"Academic Librarians in Data Information Literacy Instruction: A Case Study in Meteorology"

College & Research Libraries has released an e-print of "Academic Librarians in Data Information Literacy Instruction: A Case Study in Meteorology."

Here's an excerpt:

This research assessed perceptions of data information literacy and attitudes on its instruction for graduate students in meteorology. As academic librarians have traditionally provided information literacy instruction, the research determined if they were perceived as having a role in data information literacy instruction. The modified Delphi method was applied to obtain the perspectives of a panel of experts, representing students, librarians, professors, and researchers, for the purpose of forecasting and consensus-making.

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"Strategic Planning for a Data-Driven, Shared-Access Research Enterprise: Virginia Tech Research Data Assessment and Landscape Study"

College & Research Libraries has released an e-print of "Strategic Planning for a Data-Driven, Shared-Access Research Enterprise: Virginia Tech Research Data Assessment and Landscape Study."

Here's an excerpt:

The data landscape study at Virginia Tech addresses the changing modes of faculty scholarship and supports the development of a user-centric data infrastructure, management, and curation system. The study investigates faculty researchers' current practices in organizing, describing, and preserving data and the emerging needs for services and education. The results demonstrate the changing nature of faculty demands regarding data documentation, storage, and archiving and identify opportunities for libraries to develop a coherent service, research, and education system to address the evolving needs.

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"Data-Intensive Science and Campus IT"

Jerry Sheehan et al. have published "Data-Intensive Science and Campus IT" in EDUCAUSE Review.

Here's an excerpt:

Montana State University developed the Research Data Census to engage local research communities in dialogue about their data: size, sharing resources and behaviors, and interest in services. The census confirmed the need for a tight coupling of IT infrastructure to data and curation services in order to make those resources useful to the research community.

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"Data Management Practices Across an Institution: Survey and Report"

Cunera Buys and Pamela Shaw have published "Data Management Practices Across an Institution: Survey and Report" in the Journal of Librarianship and Scholarly Communication.

Here's an excerpt:

A 21-question survey was distributed to approximately 12,940 faculty, graduate students, postdoctoral candidates, and selected research-affiliated staff at Northwestern's Evanston and Chicago Campuses. Survey questions solicited information regarding types and size of data, current and future needs for data storage, data retention and data sharing, what researchers are doing (or not doing) regarding data management planning, and types of training or assistance needed. There were 831 responses and 788 respondents completed the survey, for a response rate of approximately 6.4%.

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"Do You Have an Institutional Data Policy? A Review of the Current Landscape of Library Data Services and Institutional Data Policies"

Kristin Briney et al. have published "Do You Have an Institutional Data Policy? A Review of the Current Landscape of Library Data Services and Institutional Data Policies" in the Journal of Librarianship and Scholarly Communication,.

Here's an excerpt:

This study reviewed library data services efforts and institutional data policies of 206 American universities, drawn from the July 2014 Carnegie list of universities with "Very High" or "High" research activity designation. Twenty-four different characteristics relating to university type, library data services, policy type, and policy contents were examined.

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A Selection of Research Data Management Tools Throughout the Data Lifecycle

Jan Krause has self-archived "A Selection of Research Data Management Tools Throughout the Data Lifecycle."

Here's an excerpt:

In this document, several useful research data management tools are listed and described for each step of their research throughout the data lifecyle management.

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"Changes in Data Sharing and Data Reuse Practices and Perceptions among Scientists Worldwide"

Carol Tenopir et al. have published "Changes in Data Sharing and Data Reuse Practices and Perceptions among Scientists Worldwide" in PLOS ONE.

Here's an excerpt:

In this study, the DataONE Usability and Assessment working group addresses two primary goals: To examine the current state of data sharing and reuse perceptions and practices among research scientists as they compare to the 2009/2010 baseline study, and to examine differences in practices and perceptions across age groups, geographic regions, and subject disciplines. We distributed surveys to a multinational sample of scientific researchers at two different time periods (October 2009 to July 2010 and October 2013 to March 2014) to observe current states of data sharing and to see what, if any, changes have occurred in the past 3-4 years. We also looked at differences across age, geographic, and discipline-based groups as they currently exist in the 2013/2014 survey. Results point to increased acceptance of and willingness to engage in data sharing, as well as an increase in actual data sharing behaviors. However, there is also increased perceived risk associated with data sharing, and specific barriers to data sharing persist.

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"Getting Emotional about Data: The Soft Side of Data Management Services"

Amanda K. Rinehart has published "Getting Emotional about Data: The Soft Side of Data Management Services" in College & Research Libraries News.

Here's an excerpt:

While I have yet to discover why researchers do not readily acknowledge that research, and the data that underpins that research, has emotional connotations, I have found that using active listening skills minimizes negativity during consultations.

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